Faculty

Jason Salavon

Assistant Professor
jsalavon@uchicago.edu

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Everything, All at Once (Part III)   2005
Custom software, workstation, real-time audio/video input, video projector, monitor
Dimensions variable. Ed. 3.

Every video frame of an input television signal is converted in real-time to a circle of pure color and re-presented as continuously radiating concentric stripes. The result constantly shifts and modulates based entirely on the input while the accompanying soundtrack is synched and unaltered. The installation uses a broadcast or cable signal presented on the small monitor and automatically changes channels every 30 seconds.

Still Life at the Speed of Sunrise   2005
Custom software and industrial LCD panel.
Continuous loop 1hr 20min. Ed. 5 + 2 APs.

A photo-realistic, completely synthetic, presentation of a pitcher and 2 tumblers. Over the course of 80 minutes these objects are constantly, but imperceptibly, changing in form, position, and material. This ultra-slow, everpresent rate-of-change aims to map the pace of natural phenomena into a more consumer/domestic space.

100 Special Moments (Newlyweds)   2004
Digital C-print.
42" x 31.5". Ed. 7 + 2 APs.

From a broader series begun in 1997, each of these works utilizes 100 unique commemorative photographs culled from the internet. The final compositions are arrived at using both the mean and the median, splitting the difference between a specific norm and an ideal one.

The Late Night Triad   2003
   Part I: The Tonight Show with Jay Leno
   Part II: Late Night with Conan O'Brien
   Part III: Late Show with David Letterman
3 Synced single-channel DVD projections
Running time: 3 min 35 sec looped. Dimensions variable. Ed. 3 + 1 APs.

In this installation, from a broader series begun in 1997, 64 nights' worth of the major US late night talk shows have been aligned and averaged using basic transformations. The result is a triptych of video projections with soundtrack, presenting an amalgamation of monologues which reveals the ghosts of repetitious structure and nightly activity.

The Top 25 Grossing Films of All Time, 2 x 2   2001
Digital video projection with audio
2 hours 20 minutes looped, dimensions variable. Ed. 5 + 2 APs.

This video installation presents the abstraction and re-organization of the top 25 grossing films of all time (as of March 2001, worldwide box office, not adjusted for inflation). Every frame of each film is subjected to a custom process that determines a grid of four colors most representative of that frame. These simplified versions are re-synched with their unaltered soundtrack and arranged by sales rank left-to-right and top-to-bottom, yielding the animated grid and accompanying chaotic audio.

117 Homes for Sale, Chicagoland 1999
Digital C-print
30" x 38". Ed. 5 + 2 APs.

From a series begun in 1997, the prints in this suite are the result of mean averaging a specific number of realtor photos of single-family homes for sale. Each piece encompasses homes on the market in a given metro region in the median price range for that area.

The Top Grossing Film of All Time, 1 x 1   2000
Digital C-print mounted to Plexiglas
47" x 72". Ed. 5 + 2 APs.

The worldwide top grossing film of all time, Titanic, was digitized from video in its entirety and broken up into its constituent frames. Each of these was then averaged to a single color best representative of that frame and reformatted as a photograph mirroring the narrative sequence of the film. Reading from left-to-right and top-to-bottom, the narrative's visual rhythm is laid out in pure color.

Figure 1. (Every Playboy Centerfold, 1988-1997)   1998
Cibachrome
48" x 22". Ed. 5 + 2 APs.

The first in a ongoing series begun in 1997, this photograph is the result of digitally averaging every Playboy centerfold foldout for the 10 years beginning Jan. 1988 through Dec. 1997. The shroud-like image is yielded by a simple, custom process: point-by-point mathematical averaging. No special "morphing" is used.